Camaros Represent Big Time at the Inaugural Chevy High Performance Nationals in Atlanta

Brad “The Dragon” Grainger brought out his supercharged ’67 for some autocross action. After learning the course, he knocked down a best lap of 30.012 seconds.

The key to this gig is making lemonade out of lemons. Our sister publication asked us to help out with a new event they put on called the Chevy High Performance Nationals in Atlanta. Since we knew the guys over at CHP throw a heck of a party, we were happy to lend a hand, and a lens, to the cause. Once we saw all the tasty Camaros in attendance, we also decided to snap a few pictures for our own pages.

3/18

The CHP Nationals is a Promedia-ran event, and as it turned out, there was a lot of pent up desire for drag racing in the greater Atlanta area. In addition to the multitude of 1,320-foot (and 660-foot) classes, there was a ton of stuff going on, including a manufacturer’s midway with over 50 vendors showing off their wares, a big show ’n’ shine, and a good-sized autocross course. The event also included the LSX Challenge Series where the baddest LS-powered cars in the country battled it out on the dragstrip and also featured a True Street Competition.

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Brad “The Dragon” Grainger brought out his supercharged ’67 for some autocross action. After learning the course, he knocked down a best lap of 30.012 seconds.

Ronnie Hackelton loves the smell of tire smoke; luckily his ’10 SS Camaro is very good at making loads of it. His final run was 10.572 at 129.44, which was good enough for Second place in the Camaro Performers 5th-gen Shootout.

You don’t need a Pro Touring Camaro filled with uber dollars worth of high-tech suspension parts to have fun running the autocross. Case in point is Craig Doolittle and his restored ’73. His best lap was 35.315 and he was all smiles after getting to flog his classic Camaro the way God intended.

Charlie Dale, of Pendelton, South Carolina, gets his drag radials nice and toasty for the True Street competition. He managed a three-run average of 10.580 seconds in his ’79 Z28, good enough for the runner-up spot.

Rusted body panels, check. Peeling vinyl top, check. Bent trim, check. 11-second timeslips, check. Yeah, Derek Hall’s ’70 isn’t going to win any car shows but given his three-run average of 11.711 in the True Street competition, who cares? Derek was edged out of the top spot by Bruce Duncan in his ’81 Camaro who had a three-run average of 11.236 seconds.

Tim McGilton, of Jet Hot Coatings, brought out his super-fresh Detroit Speed Inc.-built and equipped ’70 Camaro for a little shakedown time. After a few suspension adjustments, he nailed down a best time of 29.776 seconds.

Well over 100 entrants showed up at the car show, and there were Camaros ranging from full-on restorations to all-out customs on display.

The Baskin Truck Sales-sponsored ’10 SS Camaro driven by Greg Delaney of Covington, Tennessee, is nice enough to win just about any car show, but in reality it’s one very fast race car. Greg won the ERL Performance All Motor class with a run of 8.484 at 161.96 mph in the quarter-mile.

The True Street competition is broken down into time brackets but there’s also a prize for the fastest overall car. This year's winner was Austin, Texas,’ Jared Shepard and his ’02 SS. Jared had a three-run average of 9.806 seconds in the quarter.

Terry Nueville ran his ’68 hard all weekend. In fact, we think he made more runs than any other driver. His persistence paid off with a best lap time of 29.530 seconds.

Also on hand was this retrolicious Vintage Funny Car called The Dixie Twister. This ride has been around. The original car was discovered in Canada a few years ago and restored by Randal Davis. It was owned and driven by Georgia Motorsports Hall of Famer Huston Platt. Sadly, Platt passed away in late 2011, so Davis has been racing the Camaro in his memory.

It was nice to see Camaro Performers magazine alum (May 2012) Greg Edwards and his boosted ’02 Camaro running hard. In the True Street competition, he ran a 9.829 e.t. on his first pass followed by an 8.968-second blast on his second. Unfortunately, something broke and he missed his third run resulting in a DNF. Knowing Greg, he’ll have it fixed and even faster in no time.

OK, the new ’12 ZL1 weighs nearly 4,000 pounds but you sure wouldn’t know it from watching it negotiate the cones. Eric Cederberg picked up this Camaro on Wednesday, and by Friday he was dodging cones with the only mod being a sweet set of Forgeline wheels. So how did the new Super Camaro do? His best lap was a 28.962-second run, which put him way near the top of the leaderboard.

Another fresh ride at the autocross was the Chassisworks suspension-equipped ’69 piloted by Jake Moreau. Jake took the prize for quickest autocross time on both Saturday and Sunday, with his quickest Saturday time being 28.580 seconds.

The winner of the Camaro Performers 5th-gen Shootout was Hayden, Alabama’s Josh Perryman in his 45th-anniversary Camaro. His winning run was 13.627 seconds (13.50 dial in) at 102.83 mph. The guy in the other lane was driving a 10-second Camaro, but it didn’t matter since bracket racing is more about consistency than speed.

Stacy Tucker, of Detroit Speed Inc. literally drove the front tires off of her ’69 Camaro. In fact, by Sunday she had corded her front 295/35-18 BFG tires and had to go to her smaller (275/35-18) backup rollers. Even with this setback, she turned in a best time of 29.429. Her husband, Kyle, managed to squeeze out a slightly faster time of 28.715 seconds.

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